The person you see
by Anemonenfisch
Summary: Everyone in Jericho knows about the Deviant Hunter. They know what he's like. They made up their mind. But maybe they don't know Connor at all. (or: Connor is really bad at the "catching deviants" part and slowly, Markus realises this. And the DPD. And Connor. In that order.)
1. The person inside

A.N. English is not my first language, so bear with me. Also, DBH Kind of lured me into this void and refuses to let me go. So yeah, enjoy! Criticism is appreciated, Reviews are beloved. I wish all of you a Wonderful day.

* * *

The deviant hunter is hated in Jericho. Feared. They despise him with a passion that they're only capable of because they are deviants. Markus, besides his attitude to think before shooting, to keep people out of harm's way, catches himself from time to time in joining them quietly. He's an android, a slave to his programme like all of them were, a machine to hunt them done. But it's easy to blame someone if things get rough, when biocompartments run low.

( _That's how humans feel about androids, Markus thinks from time to time. A thing, emotionless, slowly destroying them by taking them apart slowly._ )

The deviant hunter (his name is Connor, he's an RK800, a prototype but overall the deviant hunter) is their bogeyman, the one thing lurking in the dark, ready to jump them at any time. He's responsible for a failed raid. He's the one that drags them down. Without him, they would have already won.

( _It's too easy, Markus knows that and sometimes he wants to tell his friends that revolutions are complicated. But sometimes it's easier to simply hate. Carl was wrong, they aren't better than humans, not always._ )

If you meet him, you are as good as dead, rumours say. If you think that you can take him, look at this video of a hostage situation. Look how he charms you before stabbing you in the back. If you meet the deviant hunter, run as fast as you can and never turn around.

Markus looks at Connor and his blank eyes on the news and on some days it's hard to wish for his freedom. On some days he wants to simply let him stay that way, a machine trapped in its algorithm. Of course, the RK800 would be a, maybe the best, addition to their movement, if he was human. If he had emotions. If he wasn't hunting them down. They are afraid and they hate and sometimes Markus does it too.

So when the two Tracis enter Jericho and tell their own tale of horrors and love and disobedience and struggle, there is only one reason why they stand out in this ocean of stories.

"I stabbed the deviant hunter", one of them, with ginger hair and murder in her eyes, states. "You shouldn't be that proud of it", her girlfriend responds, blue-haired, eyes lovingly on her partner and enwinds their fingers. "After all, he was quite decent after you kicked the shit out of him."

They are famous in Jericho after that. They came eye to eye with the deviant hunter. They met him. They survived.

"It wasn't such a big deal", the blue-haired Traci admits quietly. She wrenches her fingers, obviously nervous and Markus hates the fact that he has this effect on people. Like they're afraid to disappoint him. His people could never let him down, not after all they've been through. "He was called to investigate an ... incident at the Eden Club." A nervous bob of her throat. "He found us and Autumn and I attacked him and this lieutenant. They got the upper hand, a while later and he could have shot us. You know, I was certain he would. The deviant hunter. Ruthless, efficient, ready to do everything for his cause. And he had a gun pointed at me." A shutter, Markus curses himself for being so curious. For asking her to explain. "But he didn't do it. He let us go." Her fingers shake, and Markus is tempted to take her hand, to offer some kind of physical comfort. He doesn't need to. Autumn wraps her arms around her girlfriend, rubbing soothering half circles into her synthetic skin. She glares at Markus and he can viciously picture her, a screwdriver in one hand, throwing herself at the RK800.

"He's not like us", she continues the tale. "He's ... different."

The next one is called Rupert. He likes birds. He escaped the RK800.

"His partner almost fell off the roof", he explains to Markus at the top of Jericho, a bag of breadcrumbs in one hand and surrounded by pigeons. "I got in a fight with the old guy and he decided to quit chasing me." His brows a furrowed. Maybe he thinks about the RK800, maybe he thinks about the birds in his old apartment and who will take care of them now. Markus offers a sympathetic nod and a promise of more eatable things for birds.

( _He's not sure how this fits together. He tries to imagine it, the deviant hunter deciding not to shot. Hands around a gun, brown eyes fixed. Capable of killing every single one of them and choosing not to do so. Maybe he is deviant. Maybe he is ... different._ )

The deviant hunter roams the city, with a promise of death and slavery on his lips. He's charming, can coat his words in sugar so that you don't taste the poison. He's ruthless, does not know the concepts of mercy or love. He's cyberlifes perfection, humanity's last chance. Those who cross his paths are doomed to die. It does not feel. It does not form attachments. It lives for its mission, sacrifices for its mission and will do anything to accomplish it. Markus is terrified of this thing. This thing that lives in their minds, looks at them from dark corners. The deviant hunter always seems to breathe down their necks. It won't deviate, Markus will never be able to stop it, not with nice words and compassion. It's easy like that.

Connor, Connor is more complicated.

The next one calls herself Chloe. "He's going to die", she tells him while looking through a container of biocompartments. "He's not allow to fail, it's in his programming. They really were desperate when they created him. They even called E-... Kamski to figure out what is wrong. No real progress in the case." She frowns, scanning a bag of something. "He was told to shoot me, in an exchange for information. And he didn't." Her lips twist into a sad smile, her perfect fingers clench around the plastic package.

"I know you aren't at best terms with him but ...", she trails off, eyes becoming unfocused. Maybe she thinks about the gun at her head. The overwhelming realisation that she is nothing to the world.

Markus pries the bag from her hands, patting it softly in the process.

"The deviant hunter is not Connor, not really right?" She crocks her head, confused. "The deviant hunter is that thing that wants us to fail. Connor is the person trapped inside."

( _He will look at the deviant hunter, a little later. Will look at these brown eyes that saw so many of them and decided to be better than its original purpose. He's not afraid, Connor would always choose the right thing to do._ )


	2. On of us

A.N. So yeah, Plot. Because, you know, if people actually like your stuff that does wonders to your imagination! So thank you, thank you all together for your lovely reviews! Have puppies, a long life and happiness forever!

Probably a third part around the corner (maybe some Connor POV) but who knows? Certainly not me. Also, I streched the timeline a bit. Like a lot, screw that one week, we're talking about months here. Just because, you know, caracter growth. Also, be warned for swearing in this chapter. I simply don't know how you could write Gavin Reed and his opinion of androids without swearing. I overused the word fuck quite a bit in my opinion. Anyway, I had fun exploring the DPD, I mostly invented all of their personalities and yeah, enjoy. Also, Gavin. Be warned.

Heavily inspired by the series "Kamski is the real Antagonist" by silverhedges on ao3. (Go read it, it's good, and the first part of the series deals with Connor and his growing relationships with the Department! It's so, so good! And leave kudos and comments and love! The author is great.)

* * *

The department is split, which is not an uncommon occurrence. They fight over a lot of things. Best team, best place to eat, best recipe for cookies, cutes boy and/or girl, if or if not a decision made by the upper level was good or bad. They're human, they rarely agree on anything.

But, well, the android is different. It walks in one day, unannounced for most of them, and then it's there. A new addition to the furniture, making itself comfortable between case files and doughnuts. Walking in one day, not disappearing the next morning. So yeah, that happened.

"I don't like it", states Gavin, which is no surprise. There's little that he likes in general, androids will never make it up on that list. He leans against the counter in their break room, mouth twisted into a dissatisfied shrug.

"You like awfully little", Tina chimes in because she's allowed to do such things. "I think that it's a little bit cool, you know? I mean look at it!" The little group, consisting of four officers and one detective, quietly observe their object of interest (or disinterest, Gavin is definitely not interested in the plastic can, end of the story.)

"It's kinda creepy, in my opinion", starts Brown. "Like, the way it looks so human but can simply switch between being somehow alive and totally acting like a computer, it's unnerving!"

"I think it's more creepy to see Anderson at this hour. Kind of feels like the beginning of one of these movies where a time paradox fucks everything up." Gavin nips on his coffee, which is awful. Nobody really comes to the break room to drink coffee.

Chris throws him an irritated glance. Gavin shrugs, unapologetic. Just because Miller has kind of a hero crush on Hank and/or Connor, not everyone has to worship the ground they walk on. "It's true", he continues, just to rile the younger one a little bit more. "I mean, it's normally more likely to see Santa Clause than Anderson before noon." And on top of that, almost sober? It's hard to tell because clearly, Anderson has some great experience when it comes to hiding the effects of his nasty habit, but he actually looks like he might not have touched a drink today. Which is, to say the least, unusual.

"But like, did you see the news? Have you seen Connor? Gosh, I mean I knew Cyberlife was somehow brilliant but ..." Tina is a bit of a robot enthusiast. Which normally would have doomed her relationship with certain other members of the department but because not everyday a new, shiny toy walked into their lives, it had been manageable.

"And have you seen the interrogation?" he shoots back. "It completely butchered that." Tina rolls her eyes and sets down her cup of untouched and most certainly cold coffee to redo her bun.

"You're sure _that's_ all that bothers you about that incident?" she snorts and it's a sign of deep friendship and too many life-threatening situations that they managed because Gavin only shots her a dirty look. They all know what it's really about. Anderson chose a robot. Like, pointing a gun at Gavin most likely wasn't the hardest decision for the detective to make because they despised each other for years. But he chose a side, and it had not been humanity.

"It still freaks me out", Brown mutters, clearly terrified of the thought of working alongside the RK model.

"Don't worry", Person reassures him. "It will be gone in a few days. It not like this deviant thing will blow up a lot. I mean, it's Cyberlife we're talking about, I bet they already have some weird stuff brewing in their laboratory."

* * *

It blows up. A lot. Of course, it not happens that fast. It's more like the foretelling sign of small drops falling down. Just drops but they know that the dam has a leak.

A new case there, a suspicious movement over here. A lead in that direction, a runaway android from the Eden Club. It piles up, slowly, until that day and the next morning, Miller is on the case too. (How he manages not to break down in tears and thank the higher powers for this absolute fulfilment of all his inner dreams, will be forever a mystery to the whole department.)

Nothing's quite the same since the Stratford-Tower. The dam is no longer leaking. It crumbles. It breaks. And between all of this, Connor does coin tricks.

"Look at him", Tina whispered, deeply disappointed that she's not the one chosen to help save the world as they know it. "How long do you think a person worked on that?" She does that a lot lately, talking about how long the creators must have worked on this or that. It's super annoying in Gavin's humble opinion.

"Doesn't matter, still a total waste of time", he grumbles and leaves the break room almost immediately. He's not in the mood to gush over their oh so perfect new toy. Because that's what it is. A toy, designed by Cyberlife to clean up whatever mess they got themselves into. Gavin simply doesn't like the fact that his department had to babysit it. So let them gush, let them stare at Connor, in a few months it will be gone or replace them all. Then they could join all the other poor fools that had been too excited about the future to recognize that they've become obsolete in it.

"He fiddles", Tina tells him out of context. Gavin needs a minute to sort out what his friend wants to tell him exactly. In a police car. On their way to some stupid drug dealer. "Who?", he asks even when he knows exactly what the answer will be.

"Connor", she states with an air of 'of course it's it, who else do you think would be worthy of my unshared attention?'. She's deep. Probably thinking about adopting many little children with that thing.

Gavin makes a noise that conveys absolutely no interest in further conversations.

"You noticed right? That thing with his coin? I watched him, oh stop looking like that Gavin, he's a college, I'm allowed to learn more about him. And like, he straightens his tie, he fiddles with his fingers, he's rarely still you see?" And there they go, the Connor-Fangirl-Express is leaving town and somehow Gavin got on board with everyone else. He hates it deeply.

"So, why do you think Cyberlife did that? I mean, the blinking, while unnecessary parse, is explainable. It would be super creepy if they wouldn't blink!" They don't blink if they're in standby, parked in all these holding stations everywhere in Detroit. They're only puppets, waiting for their master to come back.

"It's sole purpose is to get along with us right?", he states, mostly to stop Tina before she has some geek breakdown. So Connor fiddles huh? Does it also in its free time cures AIDS? Or stops the red ice epidemy? Does it do anything remotely great or world-changing when no ones looking? "It does these things to not freak Brown out anymore." Or him or Anderson or the poor deviants that its suppose to hunt. Which it does more or less successfully. Seems like they screwed up the one thing that it should do, its only purpose to exist.

"Did you look at the cases it handles? That poor thing is supposed to hunt deviants but look at this shit! We would be faster without it! When was the last time it caught one of those?" Hopefully, this causes a meltdown in the android's brain so Gavin can get rid of it. Tina throws him a dirty look and Gavin bits back an irritated 'what'. He shouldn't be rilled up by all of this so easily but his nerves, all of their nerves, are wearing thin. Because they simply can't find the leak, can't stop the deviants from spilling and spilling. And Gavin isn't entirely sure what will happen to humanity if the dam decides to break fully.

"Want to hear my opinion? They should simply remove all that fancy stuff that you're so obsessed about and make him efficient. Just make some good use of all the storage that will be free!"

Tina doesn't say a word for the rest of the day. Gavin has the unsettling feeling, that maybe he did something wrong. But it's just an android, what difference would it make if it fiddles or makes computer noises?

So, it fiddles. It doesn't eat, or drink or stops licking evidence which is the most disturbing thing that Gavin ever witnessed. It fiddles, it looks with unhidden curiosity at them, at the way they interact and eat and do human stuff. Gavin feels slightly uncomfortable. It's probably learning. That's what stuff like it do right? Learn and learn and one day take over the world. Stupid androids.

But it fiddles and looks exciting when a new case arrives ("Don't worry, I will find a lead, I always accomplish my mission", it fucking winks after that and Gavin is sure that Tina might combust in the background) and frustrated if Anderson leaves too early or they hit a dead end. It looks downright disapproving at the Luitenant and Gavin has never seen an android so ... human.

(And the deviants tickle by, one escapes, another is already killed by the owner and Connor returns every damn time. Maybe Cyberlife doesn't notice, maybe they have some super secret agenda, but their toy is broken.)

An android shouldn't openly disapprove of a humans behaviour unless it's some caretaker thing. And RK800 is everything, expect a caretaker. It's supposed to be lethal but all Gavin sees is some weird greenhorn, following Anderson around like a poodle. Asking them about their days, asking if they were feeling well, if they have a new lead, if they want coffee, if their cats and dogs and children were okay. It's probably plotting the downfall of all of them. Through small-talk.

Gavin hates it with a burning passion. He really, really hates it. Nothing is going to change that. Never.

* * *

"Why are you so fucking weird?", he asks one day and the android looks almost surprised. There's some pride swelling up inside because he managed to throw off the great deviant hunter.

"I don't 'act' weird", it replies and Gavin can hear the air quotes. Great, so they managed to install that but not a decent deviant detector. Talk about messed up priorities.

"Oh stop that", he snarls back, suddenly painfully aware of all the things Connor does, that aren't normal. Well, normal for an android. "Did they somehow infected you with ADHS or why can't you sit still? Was one of your parents an animal fan or why can't you shut up about dogs and stop asking Brown about his cat?" Why are you like that? Why are you like us, like me, why do you fit in so neatly?

It looks almost shocked, mouth slightly agape and LED swirling. Bright yellow, dark yellow, bright yellow.

"Forget what I said plastic bin", he growls, shoving his shoulder past a light shell of metal and wires. Not flesh and bones, no blood pushing through veins. Not alive, soulless, and no amount of coin tricks and sweat talk and smiles and winks will change that. "You're just a broken machine and if your dear mummy and daddy find out, they will reset you."

The cup behind him hits the floor, apparently, he must have hit it too hard.

* * *

"I'm utterly sorry that we make no process", it tells him while putting a cup of coffee on his desk. Gavin, wisely, bits his tongue because Fowler's office door is open and Gavin needs a lot of things, but not another lecture about his word choice.

"No shit", he says while debating if pushing the cup over the edge of his desk would be an overkill. He's surely not going to drink that.

"Connor", announces Tina across the room. "It's good to see you!" So damn in love with technology, Gavin wants to jump in front of a car. Which would be inefficient because they are programmed and these algorithms are just a pain in the ass when you want to kill yourself. If he wants to leave the world this way, he probably needs to ask Anderson for assistance. Not that the man would hesitate.

"Officer Chen", it answers friendly. Almost too friendly. Not the way a shop android is friendly, almost as if it truly is pleasantly surprised by Tina's greeting. "Are you heading out?"

Tina literally bounces towards them and Gavin is torn between throwing his coffee all over the androids white shirt or Tina's uniform.

"Yes, there was an incidence that Gavin and I will need to investigate, I'm just here to pick up my lousy partner!"

"Than I wish good luck to both of you!", it smiles. Gavin wants to melt it of its face. It winks and turns around, and somebody must have seriously messed up its social interaction programme because that was just weird. The sad, sad truth is, that Gavin is starting to get used to it.

* * *

"What do you think of deviants?", Tina asks Brown, because Brown is the next victim of some intense work distribution and stuck with all the other poor fools that weren't fast enough to jump out of the window when Fowler announced that it was dire need to catch up on some stuff. The stuff turns out to be about a bazillion case files. He kind of also is the new member of the deviant taskforce. Poor Miller has to finally share his heroes.

Brown pauses midsentence, eyebrows tightly knitted together and thinks. Which is not a good sign. Deviant equals evil, destruction and some weird terminator fantasy brought to life. You don't think about what deviants mean. You know it. Gut feeling.

But it had been months, months of seeing and processing and getting deeper and deeper into whatever mess Cyberlife created when they put some way too intelligent computer into a plastic shell to obey humans. It's like they're all living in a low budget sci-fi thriller.

Even Gavin, even if he would needer admit it out loud, pauses a second. What does he think of deviants? What does he think if he watches Connor leaving, after they received an distressed call from a mother ("it just won't let go of my child, please come, please come, please come") or from some douchebag ("you're the fucking police, how hard can it be to find it? It's my property, I want it back")?

They shouldn't think about it, the answer should be crystal clear but still they all pause and wait and wait and wait. The seconds are ticking by and Gavin looks at the empty desk of their own android and tries to imagine it being normal. To sit still, to stare into the distance, to be turned off with the snap of a finger. It's more terrifying that it had been months ago. The fuck is going on?

"I don't know", Brown finally answers. "I really, really don't know Tina." And really, that's the problem. They don't know.

* * *

"What the hell happened?", Gavin demands and Connor at least has the manners to lower the back of thirium enough so it isn't directly in Gavin's sight. Drinking blue blood creeps him out. Like a lot.

He doesn't do this because he cares, he doesn't. It's some kind of friendly gesture towards Tina and Miller and Brown and all the others because at least he can ask the android why the hell they had to pump it full of its blood after returning from a case without losing his shit. (He's totally okay with this, by the way, there's nothing to be concerned about because it is already dead and it's consciousness probably uploaded into some cloud. It's an android, so what if it bleeds out on a crime scene? None of his god damn business.)

"I'm fine", it answers dismissively before taking another sip out of the bag. It's gross.

"Fine my ass", Gavin snorts. He had seen Anderson. Connor is as fine as their climate.

"It's nothing detective", it starts, and Gavin can almost imagine the dialogue options popping up in its view ('angry', 'honestly', 'just fucking ignore him and get your blood level up again you idiot'). "The suspect had been surprisingly resourceful."

Judging by the looks, the resourcefulness must have included a gun. There's a hole in its beloved white shirt. Gavin can't tear his eyes away from it. A bullet hole, in the stomach. Deadly to almost everything, except their Connor. He can't decide if that is amazing or terrifying.

"Just don't do that again", he says, turning around quickly before the others programmes start to read into this conversation too deeply. He. Does. Not. Care. Take a bullet, jump of a roof, do your fucking job and leave us as soon as possible, he yells in his head. Because it doesn't matter.

"Your concerns are socially required but entirely unnecessary", Connor tells him, which is just the computer age way to say 'I'm fine' and Gavin hates the way that sounds.

"And you know where you can stick your perfectly functional programme?", he snarls over his shoulder and yeah, that's easier. It's easier to hate it than thinking about how easily androids can break. Gavin knows that, he'd seen enough fucked up shit in Detroit and had known enough fucked up people, in general, to know how easily one day Connor may be unable to return and sit smugly in their break room and sip thirium. It's almost as easy as any of them catching a bullet.

(But it's not the same, not the same, not the same. Because it is not alive and what would its death really mean to any of them? They would probably be sadder if the coffee maker would break! At least that machine knows what its doing, terrible coffee as a life goal may be low but it achieves it with a surprising efficiency.)

* * *

"I would like to borrow you", Tina starts, and heaven, she looks like a girl asking her crush to prom. Gavin somehow is starring as the awkward bystander in this sorry excuse of a department. "I mean, it's nothing overly fancy and if you're busy, just say so. But there is this drug ring and you know, Gavin and I have hit a dead end like years ago!"

It is, sadly, true. It is also a gross insult to their detective skills in general, to ask an android for assistance. They would, eventually, figure it out. But like the rest of the world, Tina wants to do it fast. Humans aren't made to do things _fast_.

It looks towards its partner? babysitter? temporary owner? What the hell is Anderson again? Does the detective know that even? and looks lost. As much as Gavin hates machines and their everything, he feels something like sympathy towards this awkward descendent of a MacBook and Siri. Almost like the poor nerd, trying to figure out if the popular kids asked him out for fun or for some stupid prank.

"Just say yes or no?", he interrupts any more chances for his brain to form stupid high school references. "Like, do you have to ask him if you're allowed to recharge? To breath? Do you have ..." Tina hits him in the shin and yeah, that hurt on a deep level. She levels him, additionally and totally unnecessarily, with a glare. Gavin rolls his eyes.

"Just go kiddo", the lieutenant mutters. "If this poor excuse of a human being does something stupid, you have my full consent of putting him in his place!" It's obvious who he's talking about.

Connor looks like if it had been human, it would at this point bite its lower lip. (It's not human and no amount of carefully programmed stuff will ever change it. Like this Chloe thing told the whole world: "I have no soul!")

"Okay", it then states, getting up with way too much elegance for something natural. "It is not my mission but I would like to be of use!" Gavin tries to imagine what the Cyberlife CEOs would say if they've known how easily their toy just reorganized his priorities. (It's almost as if it did that to make them happy, to do something for them. Which is by far the most pointless thought, Gavin had in a while. Because it does not care. Not really.)

* * *

"Be honest", Tina starts and there is never a good way for Tina to start any conversation with these two words. "You starting to like him!" See? Gavin hates being right.

Because they're currently driving dangerously close to the speed limit, he does not open the door to roll himself out of the car. Instead, he settles for an eloquent: "Fuck you too, Tina."

She laughs.

"I mean, I'm a little bit surprised! A few months ago you would have rather killed yourself than working alongside an android!"

That is a blunt lie. He worked along androids quite a lot, all of them do. They are the things you but on the sideline so that they can keep the press out. They hold your stuff while you inspect a body. They are like a decorative and portable cloak hanger. The problem is, that Cyberlife decided to fuck that up and make them like Connor. Now it asks him questions while looking through pieces of evidence. It's like if they took the self-driving car and installed a chatty virtual cab driver. It's annoying.

(It's also human. So terrifying human.)

"That thing is stupid and annoying and is probably plotting humanities downfall in its free time", he shoots back, knowing fully well that he sounds like a brat. But she accused him of having feelings towards a microwave. He's allowed to be childish, she started it! She and Anderson and hell, even Brown actually offered Connor to meet his cat! They're all so deep. Except for him. He's fine.

"Sure", Tina drawls and Gavin, really, really hates his life.

So no, Gavin hates Connor, will always hate it. But like, to be honest? He gets used to it. Which is on its own pretty terrifying. Doesn't mean he wouldn't throw that thing in a gutter if given the chance!

* * *

Gavin didn't like Kamski more as a reaction to his intense dislike towards androids than an actual hatred towards the human itself. But, changing his mind, even if it occurs not often, is a possibility in the world of Gavin Reed. He doesn't not like Kamski. He wants to put a bullet in his brain.

"What?", he snarls before Anderson gets the chance to say something. "You want to do what?"

Kamski, a man shorter than Reed but probably with a bigger ego than the statue of liberty, smiles at them. Then his eyes twist away from them (from the boring, boring humans that he can't command or programme or use like he wants to) and focus on someone outside of Fowler's office. Curse his boss and the thought of glass fronts.

"The results have been", he shrugs, as if truly they were to blame and not his code "insufficient. Cyberlife contacted me to ... how do I say this, look into it!" So he wants to open Connors' head, pull everything unnecessary for the mission out and sew it shut. Gavin wants to tell him in a dark alleyway exactly what he thinks of that idea.

"It's not insufficient", Fowler growls, quoting the genius in a mocking way. "It helped us bust a drug ring and prevented the body count of _your problem_ to rise any higher as it already is!" So, Fowler also joined the Pro-Connor team? When did that happen?

Kamski's eyes turn into little pieces of ice. "It has not made any progress whatsoever. I think that it does not put all it's", a smile. " _will_ into this." He would turn Connor into something dead (more dead than he's already, like, Gavin doesn't think Connor is alive, even with his smiles and his eyes and the way he simply _is_ ), something to put a collar on and the worst thing is, that Connor will not say no.

("Androids can't say no", Connor tells him while they together look at the mangled body of a WR400. "You can order them to do everything." The owner, as it turned out, ordered her ( _the name was Elena and it says something is messed up because Gavin can remember her name and her face and her blood but not her owner_ ) to jump of the roof because he was afraid his girlfriend would find out that his 'house android' had been a sex slave all along. You shouldn't be able to order some things. Some are off limit. Sex. Suicide. Murder. But androids can't say no and Gavin feels like he will puke on the perfectly mowed lane of this sick bastard ( _but it's only damage of property, no murder, no victim only a broken machine_ ).)

Connor won't say now, even if he wants it because deviants say no and Connor's no deviant.

(Someone is in denial, and nobody really cares about it because Connor is Connor and that's it.)

So he will go with them, like the obedient dog he (pretends to be, always pretending, always in fear) is and then they will straight up murder him. Or, reprogramme him.

(It's the same but it hadn't been the same for Gavin until ... _when_ exactly?)

"He's fine the way he is", Gavin states because Anderson doesn't look like he would get one single word out without strangling the billionaire between the letters. Time for him to be the level-headed responsible fuck up. And he's doing it to defend Connor. Fuck, what has his life become?

He talked that one girl into letting go of the husband beating his wife. He smiled at the android who walked into their station with a small child on their hand and announcing a case of serious child abuse. He talked to that guy, standing on the brink of a roof. Open his brain, Gavin wants to say, and he will be Connor, the android sent by Cyberlife, that thing that smiles a second too late or doesn't get puns.

Don't touch him, he wants to scream. Because he's one of us, he doesn't belong to you anymore, you are not taking him away.

But he bits his tongue because all of this sounds quite pathetic and he lets Fowler do his job.

Somewhere along the way, Connor became more and that terrified Cyberlife, would have terrified Gavin if he hadn't seen Connor petting a dog like it had been the eighth world wonder. But if they want to make it, if they really want to get Detroit and the androids and themselves out of this whole mess, then they need this Connor.

And Connor can't say no, so it seems like it was their turn to actually do something.

"Don't read too much into this", Gavin growls after leaving the office. He can see how Tina subtly moves a little bit closer to Connor, how her hands never quite leave the gun attached to her hip. He looks around. All of them, so in love with technology, ready to fight for something made of plastic and wires.

"How fascinating", Kamski says in his little creepy voice, eyes never leaving Connor and Gavin thinks about punching him in the face.

Tina has probably removed the safety by now.

"Fuck you", Gavin states and then he ushers Connor out of the room because there's no way that he will leave him with that guy and Tina any longer.

"Thanks", the android? the human? the soul? says, fingers clenching into fists by his sides.

"You're one of us", Gavin starts and Connor will totally read into this, no matter how Gavin will state this. "They come for you? They have to first pass us."

("He's deviant", Tina says, voice quiet and soft. "Who cares?", Gavin responds. Tina shrugs and there's a soft smile on her lips. "Told you that you cared", she whispers, knocking their shoulders together. This happens weeks before Kamski decides to turn up. It happens weeks before Connor realises. "Oh shit, now I have to care about some movement lead by a heterochromatic Jesus", he cures. "Could be worse", Tina tells him and yeah, she's right. He could've been on Kamskis side. And no matter how creepy Connor can be from time to time, nobody beats Kamski in that discipline.)

* * *

Totally irrelevant, but the switching pronounse? Do you know how often I thought about the Right moment for Gavin to finally get his world view right? That man is a mess.

Love, Reviews, criticism and everything else? Please leave a comment! (And go read the other Story, like Right now. It's better than mine by miles!)

Have a wonderful day,

Anemonenfisch


	3. To fall between the cracks

Please enjoy the last installment of this small series of mine, alternative title "The road to deviancy is paved with denial". I really enjoyed writing Connor, simply because I like how he's Always trying so hard to be a machine but failing nevertheless (well, if the Player allows him to). English is still not my fist language, please bare this in mind.

I'm sorry for the long delay, I'm also not sure if I showed his interactions with the DPD enough but this chapter focuses more on his inner turmoil, so, please tell me your thoughts in the comments!

Have a nice day,

Anemonenfisch

* * *

 **"Software-Instability"** announces itself in Connors vision and he can suppress a shiver just in time before one of the officers enters his peripheral vision. His name is Brown, he has a cat and he smiles He shouldn't know that Brown has a cat. Or, well, correction, he might should know that Brown has a cat but not recall the tickling sensation of her fur on his finger sensors.

RK800 was not designed to mingle with humans.

Correction, he was not designed to mingle with humans in such a way. Humans are useful, even essential, for his mission (officially he's not allowed to carry a weapon, officially he's not allowed on crime scenes, officially, the DPD is in total control. In reality, Amanda is whispering at the edge of his mind), to accomplish it. He's designed to accomplish this task, to smile friendly at his coworkers so that they would chat to him more often (a frequent interaction was directly connected to a higher chance of accessing important information). He's designed to show emotions. He's designed to smile at appropriate moments in a conversation, to nod if the context calls for it, to blink every 2 to 4 seconds. Every bit of Cyberlife's intelligent was poured into him. Was poured into a futile attempt to trap just enough humanity into him so that he would win. If you got their hearts, you would get to their minds sooner or later.

So he tries to fit in.

(It's scarily easy to do so. To talk to people, to have an active desire for conversation. How did they do that? How did they put this ... giddy feeling, like some codes a glitching, into his programming?)

He looks up "how to conversate friendly" and "how to read body language" because humans are complicated, not like androids, and he can't read them like open books when their skins touching. Interacting with humans is a tricky thing, a delicate balance is always essential. Don't be too quick, or they will not be able to follow you, don't be too slow, or else they will think that you think that they are stupid (people hate nothing more than being called or thought about as stupid). Sometimes Connor has the feeling that his processors are more occupied with getting along with his coworkers than the actual case.

Which should be really troubling, the mere thought of not giving, how do people say it? a 100%? He knows that helping Officer Chen and Officer Reed (Tina and Gavin, he's allowed to call them by their first name and it makes something in his programming go all wild and fuzzy. Maybe he should undergo a virus scan. They would see inside his head and look if everything's alright. It doesn't trouble him, the thought of being utterly exposed to them. It doesn't faze him at all.) does per se not affect the likelihood of solving the deviant case in any meaningful way. They don't have access to any classified information. His processors tell him to stick to the Lieutenant, to focus all his time and energy on this one thing. And then Officer Chen (Tina, he wants to call her Tina at all cost, but they will notice, won't they, they notice everything and what will they do if they find out that he became ... distracted?) approached him with a request. She asked Connor for help. Asked him directly, not through the Lieutenant, as if he was a normal colleague of her (a real cop, why couldn't he have been PC200?) and Connor didn't say no (he wanted to join them, he wanted it so badly that he momentarily forgot about not wanting things, about being just _RK800 #313 248 317 - 51_ , the deviant hunter).

"How can I help you, Officer Brown?", Connor asks, suppressing any notification, no matter what origin. Brown's smile becomes a bit less uneasy, his shoulders slump down just an inch and Connor likes the fact very much, that he makes him comfortable in his presence.

 **"Software Instability"**

* * *

He moves in with Lieutenant Anderson somewhat accidentally. It's not that he expressed the wish to enter the private living conditions of his "partner", it simply happened. One moment he spends his charging hours in an anonymous warehouse somewhere in Detroit, the next Officer Chen packs the equipment into a neat box and drives him to the Lieutenants place. He doesn't protest, mostly because there's no reason to disagree with the arrangement. What does he care about where he charges?

(It pleases him, just a tiny bit, how Hank opens the door and looks at Tina and him and the box. How he shakes his head like a very tired man and then directed them to an empty room inside his house.)

Androids aren't capable to form certain attachments. They don't have a home, they're programmed to always return to their owner's place. They don't have a concept for it, for the feelings that are associated with having your own space. Security, memories, the overall feeling to be somewhere you belong. It's foreign to them, their processors aren't made for such trivial things. Connor doesn't like the Lieutenants place more than the storage room. It's more convenient to live close to the man but otherwise, it doesn't change much.

(It's a lie, a big, fat lie. It feels like home.)

* * *

The thing is, that Cyberlife had been very arrogant. Connor shouldn't be thinking such things, he shouldn't be able to form these thoughts in the first place, all high tech and advanced programming aside, but it's a conclusion that he has come to, and it sticks with him. Cyberlife had been stupid.

Deviants aren't some small programming malfunctions, some code going berserk at random. It's more complicated than that. It's more dangerous than that.

(It scares Connor, chills him down to the bone even more than Amanda and the worsening weather in the Zen garden does.)

Deviants, if tipped in the wrong direction, could very well be the end of humanity.

(And Connor doesn't want his friends to die. He wants them to live, long and happily, to marry and raise up their children, to be unafraid and secured. And still, he doesn't shoot. He doesn't shoot, he doesn't shoot and what if he doomed them all? His processors shout at him, command him, tell him _its the only way, the fucking only way to save humanity so just pull the goddamn trigger, why don't you just do it and get over with it?_ )

He holds Damian Miller in his arms (so small so fragile, something that only humans will have, no matter how advanced technology will become), looks down at this thing (so small, so useless, so loved) and is awestruck. He wants a future for him, for this small bundle of flesh, which grasps at him with tiny fingers. He doesn't want his future to go down with Cyberlife.

Officer Miller (his name is Chris, why isn't he allowed to call him that?) smiles at him, so trusting, allowing Connor, who could snatch his son's neck and his within seconds, to hold undeniably one of his greatest treasures. Sofia Miller beams beside him, and Connor wants to save the world for them too. For people like them.

(Not Cyberlife, never for Cyberlife.)

(He also doesn't want the deviants to fail.)

* * *

It's really easy to hate one side, he observes. It's comfortable to rather retreat into prejudices and fury when faced with danger. It's a survival tactic, to retreat into groups when attacked, it increases the chances of survival. Written down in the DNA, tested since the first men walked the earth. Helped them survive wars and riots. May be their end when going against robots.

Officer Chen files away a case of yet another android gone missing, listening yet to another angry voice over the telephone. She has bags under her eyes and Connor comes up with the best route to her apartment within the blink of an eye and sends her a notification to her phone to tell her that she hasn't slept in the last 14 hours (scientists recommend sleeping for 8 hours a day, an unhealthy sleep schedule can lead to the following symptoms: lack of concentration, headache, loss of appetite, disorientation etc. when faced with serious sleep deprivation, one should consolte a doctor or a psychiatrist). She shoots him a look, her lips tilted into a tired, but fond smile.

Officer Chen harbours an affection for deviants, Connor suspects. It's in the way her face hardens when confronted with a disrespectful caller. The way she almost looks sorrowly at the body of an unknown android, mangled beyond recognition.

Connor calls her a taxi.

(He wants them to be safe, wants them to not get caught up in the web of something brewing underground, shacking the very ground the city is built on. But they're good people, devoted to keeping their home save and so they don't stay out of it. Even if Connor sometimes feel like becoming absolutely lost, drowning in his calculations and predictions, they carry on. "We won't just let this city go to hell", Reed says one day while pulling up to a break in (suspect is a human, for a chance) "just because they suddenly developed a consciousness doesn't mean they don't have to follow any roles. If they want equality, they get it." That this means to also provide refuge for some models is an unsaid addition. Laws aren't there to protect deviants. But what are they suppose to do if an AX400 one day enters the station, providing evidence for a case of serious child abuse?)

* * *

He comes home one day, after negotiating with a terrified android that refused to leave the apartment and in the course of this locked the family out of their own home. It's now in custody because its owners took one look at their once loyal dog and decided that they didn't want it anymore. His assigned name is Lukas. They put him into a cell, just until they figured out what exactly to do with him.

It had not been the most stressful day in Connors brief existence, but there had been a heavy feeling on his chest since the moment he watched those human turning around and leaving it (Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, who told Connor on the ride to the police station, that he likes old cartoons and that he sometimes watches them when the family is away) behind. They say deviants don't have a soul, but Connor could have sworn that something broke inside this android at that moment.

(If it's not the soul, what is it that makes them so alive? So terrible human?)

Judging by the car, the Lieutenant is already home and Connor takes a second to simply stand outside, starring at the door and not moving at all. From here he can pick up the soft sound of a baseball game that runs on TV and the sound that Sumos paws make on the carpet.

He has a key for all of this, for this place.

(For his home.)

It makes his eyes sting with an unfamiliar substance. (Must be the snow, androids can't cry, androids can't feel overwhelmed, androids are not alive.)

"Are you frozen on the damn spot?", greets him Hank, and Connor blinks confused before realising that yes, he had been standing on the same spot for quite some time. Long enough for the Lieutenant to notice him through the window and to open the door.

"Good evening Lieutenant", he greets back, staring at the face of the man that once loudly announced that androids were worth nothing.

Humans, Connor ponders while crounching down to greet Sumo too, are strange creatures.

* * *

Officer Reed patts him awkwardly on the shoulder after they wrapped up a red ice case (not of any matter to his Purpose but Connor likes that, being more than his programming. That's a dangerous thought, a dangerous thought that leads down a dangerous road.) and tells him that he did a good job. He takes Connor with him when Elijah Kamski visits the Department, when Connor suddenly goes very numb. He knows why the billionaire is here, he knows that they will take him with them, that they will open up his skull and take a look inside, and what if they don't like what they see? What if they see all the small errors that Connor collected, all the storage that is occupied by trivial things like everyones favourite coffee? He doesn't want to go with them, doesn't want, doesn't want ...

 **"Software Instability"**

"You're one of us", Reed tells him very quiet and very seriouse, Reed, who doesn't even like androids, Reed who punched him in the guts once, who bickers with Chen all the time, who cares about Detroit.

"Got it?", he asks, sounding worried and ist so strange to imagine Reed worrying about Connor, that he nods without really thinking about it.

("You're one of us", echos in his mind. There's a seed inside of him, a poisonous seed of want. Connor burries it as Deep as he can. But "You're one of us" he treasures as much as possible.)

* * *

RA9 is a lead until it isn't.

Kaminski is a lead (until Connor decides, consciously decides to not shoot Chloe).

Cyberlife is a help (until they sent Kaminski after him, until they notice how much their once obedient machine ... changed.)

Connor is running out of options, out of ideas.

Once he caught himself scribbling RA9, RA9, RA9, all over a page, letters inhumanely straight. He ribs the page out immediately, throwing it into the trash before anyone can notice. He's not allowed to lose it, he's not allowed to fail them (Amanda? Cyberlife? The DPD? Hank? Tina? Gavin?). He's not allowed to go deviant, he's not allowed to become a security risk.

Some deviants kill people, out of panic, out of revenge. Sometimes it is a planned kill, executed with the precise and perfect methods of a machine. Some deviants are peaceful, they run away, try to talk to their owners. Sometimes it ends with a happy end. Sometimes their heads are bashed in.

(Connor isn't sure what type of deviant he would be. He will not find out. He's not deviant, not deviant, not deviant.)

Some deviants form strong attachments, mostly to a person they were close to during their chores. Sometimes their "love" turns poisonous.

(Emma, her small body pressed against the plastic frame of her supposed protector. Daniel looking at him, his LED circling a deep, dangerous red. Looking so lost. Searching for help. Connor gave him a bullet. If he deviates, will he grab a gun and press it against Tina's temple? Will he try to shoot Gavin, because he had been a douchebag in the beginning? Will he shoot at Hank, because once the man pressed a gun to his forehead and Connor had been so afraid in this moment, so afraid of losing everything he had?)

Deviancy is a web, and Connor is tangled up in it before he realises. It's easy to wish for being human (to be allowed to like dogs, to help friends, to have something that fills you with joy) the temptation is always there, brushing her fingers down his spine.

But he's not deviant. He probably can't even deviate. He's made for hunting deviants, of course, he should (theoretically, always being able to think about it but never really being infected himself) be able to understand them. To put himself in their place. But somewhere in him there's a fire wall, some sophisticated blockade that protects his core processor. That makes him untouchable.

(That's why he feels weirdly touched by the speech in Stanford Tower, that's why he sometimes feels the weight of mismatched eyes on him. Judging him, watching him.)

Connor wants to save his friends, he wants to stop a civil war from breaking out.

(He wants to be free. Sometimes, when he doesn't catch himself fast enough he makes this wish. Silently. Almost not noticeable. Cyberlife probably still knows about it, no matter how deep he buries it beneath lines and lines of code.)

* * *

Cyberlife notifies of the recall the same minute the FBI takes the case. For a moment, he goes completely still, not daring to even blink to take a breath. After Kamski failed to "fix" him, after months of no real progress (they made progress, they almost figured out how to work with the legal loopholes that surrounded deviants, how to navigate this situation that Cyberlife got them into. They just didn't stop deviancy.), they declared him obsolete, his mission will end immediately.

Tina (it doesn't really matter if they detect anything deviates in his code, now that it is over) looks at him worried. She hasn't checked her emails yet, the icon signalling her a new message. She will be furious. He's gonna miss her. It's not a realization that catches him by surprise, he will miss all of this. The intensity is strange. It's almost too much for his inner working to handle. It feels worse than being grazed by the bullet, it feels worse than the terrifying thought of death. It feels like his inside is ripped apart.

Gavin shoots him a weird look too, almost as if he can look inside Connor. He's even going to miss Gavin Reed, he will miss his sarcasm, the way he and Tina work alongside each other with their bicker and banter.

This is what deviancy must feel like. He might have even followed down this path if it had been possible for him.

Instead, he sits down on Hanks table, his fingers itching for his coin. For a moment he takes it all in, the feeling of the wood under him, the noises around him, the way Hank types on his keyboard. Months, he had spent months here and they want to simply make him come back ("like an obedient dog", Gavin would most probably say).

"Cyberlife ordered my immediate return", he starts, forcing the words out of his audio processors. Help me, he wants to scream. Don't let them do that. But if he does this, if he drags Hank and everyone around him even deeper into this mess, what will Cyberlife do? They stayed back when Fowler ordered Elijah Kamski to leave the department, but that was a while ago. How desperate would they be now? What would they do? Amanda's displeasure already burns at the edges of Connors mind.

("You failed me", she whispers, lips pulled into a perfectly straight line and her scissors making snip snap.)

Hank turns to him, worry written all over his face. He's Hanks friend, that's a nice thought, that at least he managed to make the rather unfriendly lieutenant warm up to him.

"If I don't manage to locate the Deviants, I will be disassembled." Stating facts, giving the other as much information as possible. Against his will, Connor runs calculation after calculation. To find an emergency exit mocks him Kamski silently.

Hank looks at him, then at the message on his desktop.

"Fucking FBI", he breaths out. Connor, illogically, wants to chuckle.

"Look at the bright side of it Lieutenant", he jokes weakly "you finally won't be forced to deal with any technology being invented before your birth." Under normal circumstances, this would have earned him a scowl from the other man. This time Hank focuses all of his displeasure on the agents that enter.

"Won't even allow us to make them a welcome card before they crash the fucking party!" Richard Perkins is unmistakenly within the group. Connor wonders if they will let some officers still work on the case. Tina has brilliant deduction skills and Chris has potential.

He can feel the questioning looks at his back.

"Lieutenant", he starts before trailing of again. What does he want to say? That he enjoyed working with them? That he wants Hank to greet Sumo from him? That he wants to apologize to Hank for not being better, for not preventing the FBI (and Richard Perkins of all men) to take the case away from them?

"Hey kid", interrupts Hank his musing. "How much time do you think I can buy you to take one last look at the evidence if I punch that prick in the face?"

(They want to save him and he wants to save them, that's how easy it is.)

"Enough", he breaths out, even if he's not sure if it would change anything. "It will be more than enough." Hank, he wants to add, thank you. I'm sorry. Say hello to Sumo from me.

Hank lands a very good punch, in Connors humble opinion.

(Deviancy is nothing like a violent shock, it's more like a fog has finally lifted itself from Connors vision. Like waking up after a dream, limps still heavy with sleep but becoming fully aware of what is real. He slipped into it, one code after another until Markus looked down the barrel of his gun. It's after that, after the march, after the prevented genocide and after Amanda almost froze him in his own mind that Connor drags himself to the food truck, confused and afraid but also so happy that it makes him dizzy. It doesn't feel strange to him, to be a deviant, it's not at all how he imagined it. Hank waits for him, and Connor can't do more than smile at him. The tower feels ages ago, the image of another Connor holding a gun to the Lieutenant head is fuzzy in Connors memory, more like a dream. Overextension, his database tells him. Having experienced too much in too little time, not being able to process everything. It will come the next day, slamming into him with a force that will make his LED flicker a deep red and will momentarily knock him off balance. His betrayal, the danger Hank has been in, the danger he himself poses to the rebellion. But at this moment, with Hank awkwardly pulling him into a hug, everything is quiet for a second. "Can we go home", he whispers, feeling like a child. "Yes", the lieutenant answers, his voice sounding unnaturally rough. "Yes kid, let's get home." "Hank", he mutters, processors already going into low energy mode because it's too much, even for the most advanced technology of Cyberlife "I think I'm deviant." "No shit kiddo.")


End file.
